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Richard Carrier’s Extra Points By Richard Carrier Sep 03, 2008
“Lions may be foes, but they’re fun”I had my first football fix this past week and I have to say it really did feel good. It was a bit difficult to get tuned into the helter-skelter of both the new look Blessed Sacrament offense and defense, but 48 points in the first half will get the old pig skin hemoglobin surging, regardless. Coach Henderson did agree, post game, that the Kenston Forest Kavaliers were not the ultimate challenge for his mostly veteran squad; that came against North Cross. To me, at least half of the fun of both high school and college football is the atmosphere schools create. Cheerleaders, bands, mascots, raucous fans and high energy student sections create that magical element called spirit. And as much as I hate to admit it, the high point in our family’s seven year existence in South Carolina was attending Clemson football games. Those games were awesome productions in as about an intimate an arena as an 80,000 plus venue, Death Valley, can be. Since then most of my experience has been at BSH and they have done a good job, particularly for such a small school and their small resources, in creating an exciting football atmosphere. However, two weeks ago I got the opportunity to learn how a small local high school managed to create a football atmosphere, probably second to none in the entire state. In 2006 Powhatan was getting ready to go up against the Louisa Lions, at their house, in the State semifinal football game. Roslyn Ryan and Greg Taylor had Powhatan Today’s coverage of the game. All of the chatter around the office, and with many of the Powhatan players, was about the Lion’s real live lion mascot, helicopters, fireworks, skydivers and the really extravagant show Louisa put on at every home game. Powhatan lost to the Lions in a very close game. Louisa went on to lose an even closer game to Amherst in the State AA Championship game. Although I was curious as to how any high school could come up with a live lion for a mascot, I pretty much discounted the other promotions as gross exaggerations. How could any small high school afford those supposedly massive fireworks displays and prohibitively expensive helicopter rental fees plus all of the other bells and whistles? Had to be a real stretch of reality. It wasn’t and isn’t. True, the lion thing was a bit of right-place-at-the-right time-in-a-very-unusual-set-of-circumstances scenario. Louisa Head Coach, Mark Fischer, the five-year architect of the football team end of the production, attends a church in Short Pump. His pastor is a most unique cleric, in that he is also an animal rescue advocate. He uses many of his rescued animals in teaching youth classes at his church. The reverend does have a rescued lion and he also has a member of his congregation who coaches the Lions. Match made in Heaven might be a bit of a stretch, but match made was not. And Louisa High School had an amazingly appropriate, ultimately impressive (and live) mascot. But one live lion does not put eight to nine thousand fans in the stands every Friday night to watch a struggling football team who had not won a playoff game — until 2006 — in 60 years! Enter Doug Straley. Straley was the Athletic Director at the time Fischer came aboard as the Head Football Coach. He is now the Principal at Louisa County High. Straley was a visionary, according to Fischer, whose vision was to build the football program into something monumental. Fischer’s job was to build a winning team while Straley was filling the stands. Straley’s approach was to promote Friday nights, not as a football game, but as a social function for people in the county, particularly that vast majority of county residents who did not support the football program. The lion, increasingly elaborate fireworks displays, skydivers and anything else Straley could devise to promote an almost carnival atmosphere began to attract non-football fans. Straley took a Field of Dreams approach. Fischer said, “build it and they will come. And it worked.” Those that came originally just for the entertainment began to attach themselves to the growing success of the football team. More and more people showed up on Friday nights. (Louisa High stadium seats approximately 3,500. Every game in the past two years has averaged over 8,000 admissions.) More fans bought more tickets, generated more revenue, funded more promotions, drew more fans, bought more tickets. Plus, fund raisers and promotions; a golf ball sale and helicopter drop this year netted $40,000 (After the $10,000 first prize was awarded to the one fan whose golf ball dropped closest to the “golf hole“ in the center of the football field), generated funds for other refinements. The transition of the Louisa County fan base from curious participants in the social scene to serious supporters of the football team itself became evident this past year. After successive successful seasons of 8-2, 9-1 and 13-1 the Lions fell to 3-7 last year. After an 0-5 start Coach Fischer made a pre-dawn, game-day trip to inspect the field. “It wasn’t even daylight out and people were lined up; it might have been a half mile, waiting to get in to the game. We can’t win a game and get that kind of support,” he told me. Again, the stars may have had to be perfectly aligned in order for this success to have happened but, after almost four decades of operating retail businesses, what I find most remarkable is that an educator would be aware of and even familiar with marketing enough to be able to design and implement such a unique and effective plan. The marketing was self sustaining. And the results were achieved without use of any of the Athletic Department’s budget. 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